Twentyfour Seven
by TaleWeaver
Summary: Finn is the unofficial leader of New Directions, & Rachel is the Vice Captain of Vocal Adrenaline.  But they still spend lots of time together – it's sort of inevitable when you're living in the same house. A 'what if' scenario.
1. Prologue  how to read

SERIES TITLE: 24/7

AUTHOR: TaleWeaver

FANDOM: Glee

SERIES SUMMARY: Finn is the unofficial leader of New Directions. Rachel is the Vice Captain of Vocal Adrenaline. But they still spend lots of time together – it's sort of inevitable when you're stepsiblings. A 'What if?' scenario about Finn and Rachel dealing with their attraction when living in the same house.

RATING/PAIRING: Varies from PG to R for sexual implications and language, depending on the 'episode'; Finn/Rachel UST and romance. Finn/Kurt and Rachel/OC friendship

DISCLAIMER: Glee belongs to Ryan Murphy, Brad Falchuk and Ian Brennan, and FOX studio. The initial concept comes from a YA novel of the same name that I read back in the mid-nineties; the book was nothing special (thus why I can't actually remember much about it) but the basic idea – a teenage couple who have to cope with living as family – always intrigued me.

Rachel's BF Jason is partly based in personality, and totally based in appearance, on Tamaki Usui from the manga/anime Kaichou wa Maid-Sama (just 'Maid-Sama' in the English translation). Just do a search on the character if you want a visual.

Part of Hiram's characterization (a bisexual man who remains faithful to a devoted spouse, loses them, and can't bear to love another of their gender) is borrowed from the manga Ouran High School Host Club, by Bisco Hitori. That's the infuriating and wonderful thing about Rachel's Dads; when you know nothing about a character, you can make them do anything!

SPOILERS: season 1 specifically; character backgrounds.

SERIES NOTES:

(I'm explaining it here, because I don't think I'll ever have enough plot to develop a full-blown story out of it)

The 24/7 universe goes AU pre-series; Leroy Berry dies when Rachel is thirteen or so, and she's so devastated that Hiram changes his mind about letting Rachel attend Carmel high, hoping that perhaps Shelby can play some positive role in her life after all - given Rachel's need to perform, and Vocal Adrenaline's standing, I can only assume that Rachel wanted to attend Carmel, but her Dads wouldn't let her because Shelby was there. Shelby has never revealed herself to Rachel as her birth mother, but she has been very supportive in a mentorship role. Hiram is actually bisexual, and can't date another man without feeling as if he's betraying Leroy, so he winds up meeting and falling for Carole Hudson during the second semester of Finn and Rachel's freshman year.

Just because I heard a rumour that he'd love to do it, Hiram is played by John Barrowman, thus completely justifying Carole falling for him instead of Burt. I mean, it's _John Barrowman_. (Yes, I am a fangirl, why do you ask?)

I've been toying with this series from about the mid-season break, so some of the things I've written here have since become AU. But then, so is this whole series, so who cares? * shrug *

Also, these were written mostly in the order I thought of them, so this will jump back and forth in time.

MUSE-IC: Every piece has a particular song as a theme. Just copy, paste, and take out the spaces. If YouTube's gone on a complaint spree again, just search for the title and artist.


	2. Splish Splash 1

TITLE: 24/7: Splish Splash I

SUMMARY: Variations on a theme; Finn, Rachel, and water.

RATING/PAIRING: PG for sexual implications and language; Finn/Rachel

DISCLAIMER: Glee belongs to Ryan Murphy, Brad Falchuk and Ian Brennan, and FOX studio. Title comes from the song by Bobby Darin. Please see 'how to read' for other notes.

SPOILERS: season 1 specifically; character backgrounds.

MUSE-IC: Long Hot Summer by Keith Urban (In a fitting twist, I actually heard this for the first time on Christmas day 2010. I should point out that in Australia, its summer then)

( www. youtube. com/ watch?v=mldClZq6sSk&feature=BF&list=PL1A6B910F9E3B9E0D&index=15 )

_**When you say my name in the middle of the day, I swear I see the stars come out**_

(Takes place right after 'Pilot')

Finn hadn't been to many pool parties before, but this one was jumping, even though it was mostly old people. There was classic rock floating out of the open windows (he'd been allowed to pick most of the music) and there were steaks and sausages and veggie burgers marching off the outside grill like a factory line or something.

It was just too bad that there wasn't really anyone for him to talk to – this kinda-housewarming thing was mainly for friends of Mom and Hiram's, though Rachel had some friends from her glee club and her dad's activism groups here. But Puck was still acting like a pissy bitch because he got Artie out of the porta-potty, (and seriously, what was up with that? Artie could have been really hurt. It wasn't like tossing Kurt in a three-quarter full dumpster when everything was in garbage bags and he could easily climb out as soon as everyone had gone – and to be honest, Finn hadn't ever liked doing that either) and he didn't trust anyone else on the team not to act weird about all this. The other New Directions members probably would have been cool with it, but things were still working into place over there and he couldn't be sure.

Finn knew that his new family situation was kind of weird, what with him and his Mom moving in with a guy whose previous wife had actually been another man, and the daughter they'd had with a surrogate. Thing is? Hiram was a really nice guy, who didn't talk down to him or try to take over as his father or anything, and made his Mom so happy she almost danced around the house. Rachel was kind of insane, but it was a really cool kind of crazy and she'd already promised to help him with his singing, even though she was the Vice Captain of Vocal Adrenaline and he was part of the (really, really underdog) competition.

Munching on his second – or was it third? – veggie burger, Finn toed off his sneakers and socks and sat down on the rim of the pool, yanking the legs of his jeans up to his knees, before dangling his feet in the water. He'd been so busy this morning helping get the house ready for the party that he felt like he'd been dancing around more than one of Rachel's ballet routines.

Was it awful that he was glad that Quinn wasn't here, even though she was his girlfriend? Because there were a lot of Hiram's friends here from PFLAG and Equality Now, and they were all being nice to his Mom which was a huge relief – he'd been kind of scared that one of them might throw a hissy fit and bitch-slap her and accuse her of mind-warping Hiram over to the Dark Side of the Force. But he thought that things wouldn't stay cool and fun if Quinn was here and made another comment like she did the only time she came to visit, about gays being an atrocity that perverted the natural order of God. He knew she didn't really mean it, she was just repeating stuff she'd heard her Dad say, but Hiram had still gone icy-furious and told her to leave. He'd then pulled Finn aside and told him that who Finn dated was his own business, but who came in the house was his, and he didn't want Quinn in his house ever again.

Finn could see his point – and to be honest, what Quinn said was kind of disgusting whether she'd meant it or not. So he wasn't ever going to ask Hiram to change his mind, no matter how snotty Quinn got about it.

When the idea of all of them moving in together first came up, Mom and Hiram had talked about getting a brand new place for them all to start over. But the more they looked, the more everything sucked. Seriously. Everything was too small, or too expensive, or didn't have any yard, and his mom neededher garden. Finn was kind of proud of himself for coming up with the solution – that they redecorate and renovate Hiram and Rachel's house for all of them.

'Cause this pool? Total win!

So it had taken most of the summer, it felt like – but even Finn could get why his mom had wanted not only new furniture for the master bedroom, but new paint and curtains and even different rugs for the floor. It was easy to see that Rachel wasn't happy about sharing her bathroom, or giving up part of her dance studio in the basement to Finn's drum set and his Dad's old recliner and a big flat-screen TV with hook-ups for all his video games as well as all the stuff for Rock Band, even though she tried to be polite and hide it, so he was trying to be extra considerate and stuff and let her watch her huge-ass collection of musical DVD's on the big screen. (Did it make him a pussy if he could already name twelve different Barbra Streisand songs without even thinking?)

And hey, he **finally** had a bed big enough that he didn't hang off the edges anymore!

He even had a special reminder of his old home from Rachel; she'd given him a housewarming gift of his own, yesterday. She'd found an artist that did custom wall plaques, and now Finn had a foot-high replica of one of the cowboys from his old bedroom wallpaper hanging above his desk.

The final touch had been finished only yesterday, re-arranging the family photo wall in the newly repainted living room. Now, the furthest photo to the left was of a college-age Hiram and Leroy Berry, and the furthest frame to the right held a strip of photo-booth pictures from his Mom and Dad's first date. As you moved closer to the centre, time moved along, so you could see Leroy in his Army Rangers uniform, glittering with medals, and his Dad in his camo fatigues, and Leroy and Hiram beaming as they held an adorable dark-haired baby in a pink onesie with a gold star on the front, and Mom cuddling with toddler-him on the hood of their old truck.

Right down the centre, though, was a string of photos of Hiram and Mom together, of him with Hiram and Mom with Rachel, and all four of them together, mostly from their two-week summer vacation. Finn had never even been out of Ohio before, and he'd been blown away when Hiram insisted on taking all four of them to Rome – he'd always wanted to see it, but Leroy hated pasta and refused to go to Italy, so it was just about the one place Hiram wanted to visit which didn't have memories of his husband around every corner. Rome had been totally awesome, and everyone wanted to go back there again.

Finn looked down at the pool, and couldn't hold back a grin. It was just too bad that they couldn't put up a photo of his favourite memory of Rome, 'cause Mom and Hiram would kill him and Rachel both.

The day before they left, Rachel was still upset that she hadn't gotten to throw a coin in Trevi Fountain, so he woke her up at one in the morning, and they snuck out of the hotel and grabbed a taxi. Even Finn could see that the Fountain was beautiful and incredibly romantic, lit up in the dark, and after they had thrown coins in the fountain, ("Back to the water, hold the coin in your left hand, toss the coin over your right shoulder, Finn! If you don't do it properly, it won't work!") he and Rachel had wound up taking off their shoes and paddling around in the basin, with other people's coins sticking to their feet. The pool wasn't very deep, but Rachel was so tiny that she'd had to hold up her already short skirt, and Finn had spent the rest of their visit trying to figure out if he'd really caught a glimpse of her panties.

When they finally made it back, Finn had tumbled into bed and spent the rest of the night dreaming about standing in the basin of the Trevi fountain, kissing Rachel as he slowly peeled her clothes off, and while their clothes floated around he bent her over one of the rocks at the base of all the statues and did a whole lot more than kissing...

Finn gulped and kicked his feet in the pool, churning up a splash that would hopefully soak his jeans and cool him down a bit. Rachel was sort of his sister, now, and it wasn't right to have sexy dreams about her. Even though she was smoking hot, and had the most gorgeous smile, and he let her hog their bathroom in the mornings just so he could lie in bed and listen to her sing in the shower.

"Having fun?"

Finn was so startled that he nearly fell into the pool, but Rachel was nice enough not to make fun of him, taking off her sandals before she sat down and slipped her feet into the water next to his.

"Uh, yeah. I know these veggie burgers are healthy and all, but they're really tasty."

"I'm glad you like them. Being vegan is important to me, but I realise that our new living arrangements require some compromise." Rachel gave him a gentle version of her killer smile, before she closed her eyes, tipping her head back to catch the rays of the dying sun on her face.

"Hey, what happened to your buds?"

"I just waved Jason off, and David took Selena home about an hour ago. We've had extra rehearsal all week, and we're all exhausted."

"You don't look it – you look great."

Rachel actually looked better than great, but he thought that might be a no-go area. He didn't know if she and Mom had picked out the sundresses on one of their shopping trips, but they sort of matched: Mom's was printed with flowers and leaves, while Rachel's was blue with white polka dots, but they were the same style: skinny straps with a whatchamacallit, sweetie neckline that did awesome things to Rachel's cleavage (and he was so not thinking about what it looked like on his Mom!) and buttons down the front of the top which turned into a swirly skirt.

"Thanks, Finn. That's really nice to hear."

With her eyes still closed, Rachel took out the clip that held her hair wrapped up and shook her head, sending all that gorgeous dark hair flying around, and running her fingers through it.

Finn froze, just watching, because this was one of **those** moments; when Rachel did something little but it was just so **female** and not sexy exactly but... sensual? Yeah, that was it, and it was so fascinating that, like, every cell of his body had to give her his full attention.

"You've been really nice to us, Rachel. I know you're kinda... um, territorial about stuff, and I know it means a lot to Mom that you've made things so easy on us. What with us turning your house upside down and all."

Rachel opened her eyes and snickered. "You don't have to be tactful, Finn. I'm obsessive and high-strung and more intense than a mad scientist's laser beam at the best of times. 'Territorial' is something of an understatement, when it comes to the things I consider – or want to be - mine." Rachel sort of glanced at him sideways, and added softly, "That's why I don't get along well with Quinn."

Finn frowned and blinked a little. Was she still thinking about that nasty stuff Quinn had said about her parents? Because he kinda got the feeling she was talking about... well, **him**.

Rachel blushed, and added, "I know this must be even more of an adjustment for you than me. You had to leave the house you grew up in, and get used to a new neighbourhood. Not to mention everything else. After all, I'm used to sharing my parents with each other, but it's always been you and Carole, hasn't it?"

Finn nearly gaped like a loon. Seriously, how did Rachel just **get** him like this?

"Well, yeah. She dated one or two guys, but they didn't stick around long."

Rachel frowned. "I really don't understand why - Carole is wonderful!"

Finn grinned widely. Sharing his Mom was a lot easier when it was with two people who thought she was very nearly as awesome as he did.

Rachel fanned herself and sighed. Then she eyeballed the sparkling blue water of the pool, and Finn was just about to suggest they have a swim once everyone went home, when she muttered, "Oh, what the heck!"

Then she pushed herself off the ledge and jumped into the pool - fully clothed!

Finn gaped as she came up again, tilting her head backwards so her hair slicked itself back, and she smiled like an old-time movie star.

"Care to join me?"

Finn hurriedly tapped his pockets, to make sure he'd left his phone and wallet up in his room. He took off his watch and tossed it on the table, glad he wasn't wearing a belt, then grinned back and followed her in, trying to catch her in his splash.

That was when their parents came out the sliding doors.

Hiram took one look at them, splashing around, and started laughing. Mom gasped and started saying something about ruining their clothes, but Hiram just bent down to take off his shoes and do the same tapping-his-pockets thing that Finn had.

His Mom almost fell over when Hiram lifted her feet one by one to take off her nice leather sandals.

"Hiram, what on earth are you doing?" Then she screamed as Hiram picked her up bridal-style and jumped in the pool with her in his arms, still laughing.

When they surfaced, Mom started to laugh too, and Hiram spun around in the water, turning the pool into a huge swirly, and even though they were in the shallow end Rachel hung onto him for balance, and she was warm and wet against him, even through her dress and his shirt, and none of them could stop laughing.

"Hey, everybody say cheese!"

Finn looked up to see Rachel's friend from PFLAG, the one who went to Dalton Academy, holding up his phone and aiming it at the pool with a huge grin on his face.

Rachel's arms tightened around him just a little more, and his mom shrieked again, in a way that Finn meant she was really trying not to laugh, and Finn thought his grin might split his face open.

And Finn totally knew that **this** picture was going to go smack in the centre of the family photo wall.

_**And that was the beginning, of my heart spinning, like these wheels in my head**_

A/N: Besides the fact that this is AU anyway, I actually drafted this before 'Blame it on the alcohol', so there was no canon evidence that Blaine and Rachel might not have known each other previously, and Rachel just didn't mention it to Kurt on-screen. Given how few openly gay people there are in or around Lima, and how prominent Rachel's dads must be, I think it's plausible that Blaine and Rachel could have heard of, if not met, each other earlier than canon, and simply not mentioned it. I still think that Rachel must be quite energetic in gay activism, even if she doesn't talk about it much on the show.


End file.
